Global 500

Global business is back. After limping through a worldwide financial crisis and economic slowdown, the 500 largest companies ranked by revenues shattered all sorts of performance records in 2013: They racked up combined revenues of $31.1 trillion, up 2.5% from 2012, and profits soared 27% to nearly $2 trillion. China’s 95 companies (up from 89 last year) posted $5.8 trillion in revenues. The U.S. has four fewer companies on the list than last year but remains (for now) the country leader, with 128 corporations on the list—including No. 1 Wal-Mart Stores—reporting $8.6 trillion in revenues. —Stephanie N. Mehta

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Methodology

METHODOLOGY Companies are ranked by total revenues for their respective fiscal years ended on or before March 31, 2014. All companies on the list must publish financial data and report part or all of their figures to a government agency. Figures are as reported, and comparisons are with the prior year’s figures as originally reported for that year. Fortune does not restate the prior year’s figures for changes in accounting. REVENUES Revenue figures include consolidated subsidiaries and reported revenues from discontinued operations, but exclude excise taxes. For banks, revenue is the sum of gross interest income and gross noninterest income. For insurance companies, revenue includes premium and annuity income, investment income, realized capital gains or losses, and other income, but excludes deposits. PROFITS are shown after taxes, extraordinary credits or charges, cumulative effects of accounting changes, and noncontrolling (minority) interests, but before preferred dividends. Figures in parentheses indicate a loss. Profit declines of more than 100% reflect swings from 2012 profits to 2013 losses. Profits for partnerships and cooperatives are reported but are not comparable with those of the other companies on the list because they are not taxed on a comparable basis. Profits for mutual insurance companies are based on statutory accounting. Revenue and profit figures for non-U.S. companies have been converted to U.S. dollars at the average exchange rate during each company’s fiscal year (ended Dec. 31, 2013, unless otherwise noted). BALANCE SHEET Assets shown are those at the company’s fiscal year-end. Stockholders’ equity is the sum of capital stock, paid-in capital, and retained earnings on the same date. Noncontrolling (minority) interest is not included. Figures for non-U.S. companies have been converted to U.S. dollars at the exchange rate at each company’s fiscal year-end. EMPLOYEES The figure shown is either a fiscal year-end or yearly average number, as published by the company. Where the breakdown between full- and part-time employees is supplied, a part-time employee is counted as one half of a full-time employee. MEDIANS No attempt has been made to calculate medians in industry groups with fewer than four companies. The medians for profit changes from 2012 do not include companies that lost money in 2012 or lost money in both 2012 and 2013, because no meaningful percentage changes can be calculated in such cases. CREDITS This year’s Fortune Global 500 was prepared under the direction of list editor Scott DeCarlo, assisted by senior editor L. Michael Cacace. Financial statements and annual reports were reviewed by reporter Douglas Elam, accounting specialists Richard Tucksmith and Rhona Altschuler, and markets editor Kathleen Smyth. Reporter Cindy Kano (Tokyo) reviewed and verified figures for Japanese companies. Beijing bureau manager Zhang Dan provided figures for Chinese companies. Staff in Britain, France, Germany, India, and South Korea gathered data in those countries. Fortune’s Business Information Database administrator, Larry Shine, supplied technical support. Edith Fried reviewed and edited nonstatistical information. Research assistants Viki Goldman and Kathleen Lyons assisted in data verification using data provided by Thomson Reuters; S&P Capital IQ; FactSet Research Systems; Hoover’s; and Morningstar Document Research.